miyajima

As kids we were always told not to play with our food but someone didn’t get that memo at a recent curry exhibition. Online marketplace Rakuten recently hosted a one-day event showcasing regional curry dishes from all over Japan, and the curry creations were very playful, and some were downright awesome. As if the spict foodstuff wasn’t already delicious enough, it got even better with iconic Japanese tourists spots replicated from curry!

Check out some of the dishes after the jump. It’s tourism for your taste buds!

Regional curries from all over Japan’s 47 prefectures were represented at the unique food event. The highlights were the curry dishes that were replicas of some of Japan’s famous tourist spots. For the more gourmet-minded amongst us, seeing and smelling a place might not suffice. We want to be able to taste it as well.

There’s a saying that goes, “first eat with your eyes and then your mouth”. In that case, feast your eyes on these:

miyajima

This is the Miyajima curry, named after the famous island in Hiroshima with its shrine gate that rises from the sea. Here we see is at low tide, of course, complete with deers made from baby frankfurters and the red torii gate with the nori trimmings served on a bed of curry and rice. We have to admit it’s pretty impressive, and can’t have been easy to plate.

Representing Hokkaido was the “igloo ice floes curry”, featuring an igloo moulded from rice with a white stew curry to represent the ice floes.

igloo curry

It’s the perfect hot dish to warm you up during a harsh Hokkaido winter but it’s almost too cute tooeat.

Of course, no trip to Japan would be complete without a sighting of Mt. Fuji. The Yamanashi Prefecture curry featured the iconic Fuji-san with a wine-based curry, Yamanashi also being the wine region of Japan.

fuji curry

And yes, you’re going to need a special bowl and a fair amount of rice to replicate that cone-shaped mountain effect.

You can check out the making of the rice Mount Fuji in the video below.

From obvious to subtle, we will be impressed if you can figure out what this curry below represents.

zenpokoenfun

This would be a zenpokoenfun, a keyhole-shaped burial mound, the largest of which is located in Osaka prefecture and called Daisen Kofun, the tomb of Emperor Nintoku.Who knew Japanese geography or history could be so fun?

Even places from Kyushu weren’t forgotten. Representing Miyazaki Prefecture was Takachiho’s beautiful gorge. The curry formed the river flowing between two walls of rice mixed with various greens.

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If you fancy yourself a curry connoisseur, then you should check out Rakuten online store G-Curry, a play-on word of “ji curry” which in Japanese means local or regional curry. They sell 500 different kinds of regional curries from all 47 prefectures in Japan, with everything from oyster and cow tongue varieties to strawberry, cherry, and even melon curries. Usually I pick my travel destinations from a travel guide, but perhaps my next holiday will be based on a curry dish tourist spot replica.

Top image: Pouch
Insert images: YouTube / Formsofattentionaretheoutcome
[ Read in Japanese ]